


Connections

by Aggressive_Aegyo



Series: Self-indulgent fics about Jin figure skating [2]
Category: World Trigger
Genre: Gen, I JUST REALISED THAT I NEVER PUT A SUMMARY, I was watching 4cc and yeah this happened, I'm so in love with this universe even though no one else likes it, It's really shit this summary but it's better than not having one, WTF me, fight me, jin skates at nationals, unrealistic learning speed tbh
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-20
Updated: 2017-02-20
Packaged: 2018-09-25 18:45:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,386
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9838628
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aggressive_Aegyo/pseuds/Aggressive_Aegyo
Summary: Connections, Jin had plenty of them. Connections to Border, to Tamakoma, to his friends, to the future and his side effect, and to skating. His life was full of them.Now he was competing, he'd gain even more. That's why this season, that was his theme.





	1. 1

**Author's Note:**

> Okay so my beta and co-writer is going to be completely afk for roughly the next year unfortunately due to personal stuff meaning you'll have to deal with the unbetaed mess that comes with this autistic noodle writing alone.
> 
> Each of the costumes and routines in this are based of IRL routines. I did my best to describe the costumes (It's so hard?) and the routines but I doubt I did it justice so here's the links to each one. I may have let the figure skating nerd out with this one.
> 
> Okay so Jin’s SP and outfit: https://youtu.be/W2qhTqnZqyI  
> Jin’s FS and outfit: https://youtu.be/A4J53vi1GyA  
> Jin’s gala and outfit: https://youtu.be/8xLp5pVuvK8

Figure Skating had almost completely taken over Jin’s life. Border and his friends were still incredibly important to him, possibly even more so than before he’d started skating, but his love for skating was renewed.

It has been just over a year since he’d started skating again and he almost immediately reached the level he used to before. Even with his natural talent on the ice, getting a coach and dedicating time to training was a difficult task. He was well aware of that, and yet somehow he’d managed to find a good coach and train at least four hours a day.

The idea of competing professionally in national and international competitions wasn’t new to him, he’d done it when he was younger, even won medals in juniors nationals, but when his coach brought up the idea of competing in this season’s Japanese nationals he found himself conflicted. Sure he’d always been a bit of a skating prodigy, his side effect helping a bit there, and thanks to so much practice, he had the skills, but still. Competing professionally meant taking even more of his time away from Border and if something happened while he was gone the guilt would be crushing.

The answer came in the form of an over-excited Tachikawa who promptly exclaimed,  “You’re thinking about competing in nationals? That’s so cool, we’ll all come cheer you on!”

Six months, he had six months to get and practice choreography, not to mention getting new costumes and practicing more. It was stressful and even more so once he decided to choreograph his own Gala skate, the task was near impossible, but he was determined.

Thanks to his past achievements and some of the local competitions, he was already a registered mens’ skater with the Japanese Skating Federation and thus was qualified to take part in the large competition as long as he passed the block competitions. Jin had never competed at a senior level nor did he know anyone who did.

 

It took a month for all of his choreography and costumes to arrive. Trying not a wince at the cost, he took his first proper look at his costumes. His Short Program outfit was an explosion of purple, there wasn’t really any other way to describe it, dark purple velvet pants along with a intricately designed shirt. It wasn’t his favourite costume ever but it was nice and would match the routine. The next was his Free Skate costume, a full body outfit with black pants and a white to green to blue gradient across the shirt. The costume was a one piece, disguised to look like two. Jin genuinely really liked this one. The top half was the gradient with long sleeves, covered in rhinestones and, for lack of a better word, a frill on the shoulder. It was nice to look at and would suit the routine perfectly. The last costume was the one for his Gala skate, a costume he’d designed alone to match the routine he choreographed himself. Dark black pants with a swirling pattern of silver rhinestones up the side and a white, long-sleeved, v-neck shirt which was also doted in rhinestones. Figure skating was a sport that seemed to involved a lot of those.

 

The time seemed to vanish, six months turning to five which suddenly turned to four and before he knew it nationals was right around the corner. They were being held in Osaka this season and despite that a large group of Border agents were planning on going. Jin gave tickets to Tachikawa, Kazama and Arashiyama but everyone else had purchased their own ticket without his knowledge. Honestly he hadn’t even realised there were this many agents that didn’t hate him.

 

His last few days before the nationals were spent training and going over his routines again and again, not willing to mess up in front of his friends. He had a few quads which he’d spent months practicing, along with the routines he’d spent so long perfecting, but he was still nervous. Jin was up against world champions, who wouldn’t be nervous in that situation. The amount of different futures he could see when he looked in the mirror didn’t help either. Some where he won, some where he lost, even one where he crashed and broke his leg.

 

The day came and before he knew it, he was unpacking in a hotel room in Osaka. The first official practice was in two days, the event began three days after that, and the men's Short Program the evening of the day after. 

  
  


He could see them chatting in the stands. It was funny to watch a bunch of Border agents who knew very little about skating trying to fit in which a bunch of hardcore skating fans. The sight making Jin laugh and helped to take away some of the stress as he watched from the side of the rink. Despite the fact the Jin wasn’t skating for another few hours, everyone was there. They’d all watched the events from the day before as well. 

 

It was his turn. Jin drew third in the draw for skating order so he’d been sitting by the rink, stretching and watching his competitors skate. Probably a bad idea, the stress was back along with a lot of nerves. He looked over to his friends in the crowd, hoping that the sight of familiar faces would calm him down. He made brief eye contact with Arashiyama who gave him that famous grin and two thumbs up. 

He took a deep breath and stepped out onto the ice.


	2. 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Skating time

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Me: I should wait and upload the next chapter later. It's ready but I may as well have just made it a oneshot if I don't wait.
> 
> Also me: just do it hoe.

Connections. That was his theme for this season's routines. His connections to Border, to Tamakoma, to his friends, to the future and his side effect, and to skating. His life was full of them. His Short Program was about his connection to Border. The good times and the bad. The friends he’s made and the enemies.

The music began and he was caught up in it. The routine was muscle memory by now but he was still going to push harder. This had to be the best he’d ever performed this routine.

It wasn’t flawless, he had to put his hand down on one of the quads, but it was by far one of the best skates Jin had ever done. 95.48 was his final SP score, a personal best, and it put him in third by the end of the Short Programs.

 

The interview afterward was interesting. People crowded around Jin, desperate for information on the skater they’d all basically never heard of and yet was on par with world champions. He’d been prepared for all of the questions about his skating and the reason why he hadn’t competed, even on a local scale, for years, so he somehow managed to get through.

 

Tired and sweaty, Jin was perfectly happy to go back to his hotel room and collapse on the bed with room service and a movie. When he made it to his room he found a large pile of gifts, things that people threw onto the ice for him. A lot of skaters got barely anything and he had a feeling most of it was from border agents, he caught them researching why people throw things onto the ice at competitions, or people from Mikado. There was a large amount of flowers and quite a few plushies. He definitely didn’t sleep with a bunch of them on his bed with him.

 

The men’s Free Skate was the last event on the third day. Jin had to make it count. His Free skate would have a very high score as long as he could pull it off without making any stupid mistakes. He was seventeenth this time in the skating order, skating almost at the very end. 

During the wait, while the others skated, Jin sat in the waiting room and traced his free skate program on the ground with his finger. There was a TV in the room, showing what was happening live on the rink. Occasionally it would pan out over the audience and Jin would catch a glimpse of his friends. It was reassuring to him, the knowledge that there were there. He could see a little Border banner that someone had made for him and it made him smile. 

 

Before he knew it, it was time. His coach’s hand on his shoulder was a comforting feeling that helped ground him a bit, but he’d be lying if he said he wasn’t nervous. His Free skate was hard. The jumps were frequent and difficult, the music demanding a performance as beautiful as it was. Jin had been ignoring what his side effect told him all day, pushing the things he saw to the back of his mind, but for just a moment he looked. At his coach, at the other skaters, and at his reflection in the silver of his skates. Futures overlapped and he was grateful that at least the one where he broke his leg was gone. How his routine when seemed almost 50/50. Half of the futures where he failed, a little or a lot, but another half where he succeeded. 

As he took his skate guards off and glided onto the ice, he glanced one last time up at his friends who were cheering and gave them a thumbs up.

 

The theme for his Free Skate was his connection to the future. His unwanted ability to see everything, no matter whether he wanted to or not. How it was up to him, even as a small child, to evaluate everything he saw and make decisions. Would he save this person or that one, stop this accident or that one, all of his life Jin was the one making these choices, no matter how cruel they were. He tried to capture the good and bad, his ability to help people and aid Border versus his inability to save everyone and make the decisions on who dies. 

The music was beautiful and fit perfectly, it was down to his skating to fully express his theme, though.

He fell on the first big jump but got up fast, pushing his body to make the next jump flawless. He forced himself to calm his mind, let the music take over his body and trust himself. He didn’t mess up again after that and as he bowed and walked off the ice, the cheering from his friends was deafening. When Jin and his coach arrived at the Kiss and Cry he pulled on his Border jacket instead of his JSF issued one, the familiar feeling of it feeling almost like a hug from his mother.

 

He won. Jin Yuuichi, someone who’d only been skating for a year after a four-year gap, won the Japanese nationals. It took him roughly an hour before he managed to process the news, even during the medal ceremony he was in shock. This one of the least likely futures he saw and Jin wholeheartedly didn’t believe it would happen. He was even more stunned when his coach reminded him that he would almost definitely end up in the Japanese national time for the rest of this season and beginning of the next now. He only managed to snap out of it when a  _ very  _ excited Tachikawa and Kazama burst into his room. Tachikawa practically jumped him, grabbing him in a hug. Kazama was calmer but it was clear he was excited too. They dragged him by the arm out of his room and into the lobby where everyone from Border who came was gathered.

The rest of the night was filled with a lot of congratulations and all of them gathered in Jin’s room with movies and pizza.

Midway through the second movie Arashiyama asked what the schedule for the rest of the event was.

“You don’t know?”

Arashiyama shrugged a bit, “We’ve just been watching the whole event waiting for you to show up, we don’t actually know the schedule for the event.”

Jin rolled his eyes, of course. “The women’s free skate, the pair’s free skate and national team announcement is tomorrow and the gala is the day after.”

“Gala?”

Jin strongly considered smashing his head on the bedframe, “The gala is an event after the competition where all of the skaters do routines where they can just have fun really, it’s where you don’t have to worry about scores or anything. You can just skate. I choreographed my own gala skate this year actually.”

“Oh cool, I didn’t even know that was a thing.”

They lapsed into silence again after that, everyone watching the movie.

 

He was on the Japanese national team. It was practically a given considered he came first but still, Jin didn’t even think he’d get on the podium, let alone first AND on the national team. He’d be competing on an international level now. That meant longer gaps where he would be away and longer training sessions, cutting down the time he could spend at Border significantly. Somehow his gala skate fit even better now. The lyrics of the song felt fitting and he knew that whenever he’d skate it at an international competition, he would give it everything so that his friends could see that he was skating for them when he performed it.

The Gala rolled around and suddenly he was standing with a bunch of skaters who he’d never even met, practicing choreography for the opening and ending. They were friendly to him and Jin hoped that he could make some friends amongst the skating community soon.

For how fast the event had flown by, the wait until his gala skate was agonizing. The minutes ticked by but each felt longer than it was before finally, it was his chance to skate. 

He wasn’t nervous this skate at all. He stepped onto the ice and glided into the middle of the rink calmly before taking his starting pose. He spun and jumped, letting himself just enjoy skating the routine he’d made. He even found himself singing along softly in the middle. Right at this moment, he felt like he was twelve again, dancing around the ice, and right at this moment, Jin loved skating with every fiber of his body.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm just sort of writing this whenever because I don't think anyone's particularly enjoying it but if you are, let me know and I'll write more in this universe.


End file.
